Bulgari Resort & Residences, Dubai

Whole ownership of an apartment, penthouse or mansion, with the title deed issued by the Dubai Land Department and the sale registered at a Real Estate Registration Trustee office. The blocks are jointly owned property, so a share of the common areas comes with the unit and the owners association sets the annual budget. The Bulgari name is licensed to the developer, Meraas Bay and Residences LLC. The developer's own brochure states that the Bulgari and Marriott parties provide no hotel services to any part of the scheme and that the licence to use the name may be terminated under the agreements between them. The tenure recorded on the title is confirmed for the specific residence before you commit.

There are no fixed weeks and no booking calendar. The residence is yours year round, and you may leave it empty. Letting is the part that carries rules. Apartments and villas let as holiday homes must be registered and approved by Dubai's Department of Economy and Tourism before they are listed, and a longer tenancy is registered with the Dubai Land Department on the unified Ejari contract. The house rules for the block sit with the owners association, so letting an owner residence is subject to availability of the permit and to those rules. Marina berths and Yacht Club membership are separate paid programmes, and some club space, the boardroom among it, is used subject to availability.

The annual charge is the service charge on jointly owned property. The management company files a budget for the building, the Dubai Land Department approves the rate through the Mollak system, and the approved figures are then published on Mollak and on the department's own website. The charge covers the common areas, plant, insurance, cleaning and the shared utilities set out in that budget, and is assessed on the area of each unit. The rate for the block and the unit size is confirmed for the specific residence before you commit. A marina berth and Yacht Club membership are charged on top, at the published rates.

The residences sit inside a working resort, and the list below is what is actually on the island rather than a brand promise. It also marks what is members only or chargeable: the marina, the Yacht Club and the spa run on their own published rates, while the residential blocks have their own gardens, pools and gymnasiums.

ACPV Architects Antonio Citterio Patricia Viel did the architecture and the interiors for Meraas, and record the project at 52,000 sq m with the year 2017. The operator describes 1.1 million sq ft holding 101 rooms and suites, 20 villas, six residential blocks with 173 sea facing apartments, 15 private mansions and ocean mansions on the northern shore. Penthouses sit on level 7 of the blocks. The residences are composed as overlapping wooden terraces, the hotel facade as coral like sunscreens. Golden limestone runs through podiums and boundary walls, with lava stone and basalt paving in the public spaces.

Jumeira Bay is a six million sq ft island built by Meraas off Jumeirah Beach Road, shaped like a seahorse and reached by a 300 metre bridge. The developer measures the site at 5 km from Sheikh Zayed Road, 2 km from City Walk and 6 km from Burj Khalifa and Downtown Dubai. The operator puts Dubai International Airport 25 minutes away by car and Al Maktoum International 45 minutes. A pedestrian promenade runs from the hotel building to the Yacht Club, past the harbour.

Foreign buyers who do not live in the UAE, and expatriate residents, may hold freehold title in Dubai's designated areas under Article 3 of Regulation No. 3 of 2006, with the title deed issued by the Land Department. A resale goes through a Real Estate Registration Trustee office and takes about 20 minutes over the counter: Emirates ID, or a passport for non resident buyers, plus an electronic no objection certificate from the developer obtained through the Dubai REST app. Registration is 2% of the sale value from the seller and 2% from the buyer.

Meraas has kept building on Jumeira Bay, which matters to anyone buying the 2017 stock. The Bulgari Lighthouse, launched with Bulgari Hotels & Resorts and designed by ACPV, runs to 27 storeys with 31 penthouses of 4 and 5 bedrooms, crowned by a three level Sky Villa of 9 bedrooms with a 13,000 sq ft terrace. Bulgari Marina Lofts and the Bulgari Ocean Mansions, 5 bedroom houses with glazed terracotta roofs on the northern shore, follow it. The developer records the original resort and residences as sold out, so this is a resale market.

Avory works this as a resale market: the owner directly, the Dubai agent holding the mandate, and the Meraas sales office when a new phase on the island is released. After an enquiry you get the title position, the service charge history for that block, floor plans, the owners association rules and a viewing. There is no list price, because each seller sets their own. Owner stays are arranged directly, subject to availability. Request access.